Bengali Film review Dosar

Just thought to scribble few lines on Rituparno Ghosh directed film Dosar as it stirred my mind and made me again question the intricacies of relationship.

Rituporno Ghosh has many critically acclaimed films under his belt such as Unishe April, Dahan, Utsab and even The Last Lear casting legendary Amitabh Bachchan. In all this films he have experimented and portrayed reflection of human relationship through different angles and with a story that leaves you pondering on how would you have reacted if it happened with you. So, here is a filmmaker who makes you question through his subjects on celluloid.

Again, in Dosar, its lust and infidelity that is the crux of the story. There is a woman too, torn apart between her sense of duty as a wife and deep sense of individuality as a betrayed woman.

The story unfolds with a car accident, sojourn to an extra-marital relationship of Prosenjit Chatterjee with his office colleague. The woman dies and Prosenjit is left with severe physical injuries and feeling of remorse. Prosenjit is in his recuperating period but he fails to come to terms with his mental trauma.

The segment of the film that keep you questioning and you wish to know more is that of Prosenjit’s wife Kaberi, role played by Konkana Sen Sharma.
Hearing about the accident, Kaberi rushes to the hospital and she is shocked not only with grief but anger too as infidelity of her husband is exposed. With this opposite feelings she begins to fight her days and tries to control emotional outbursts in a way that only a woman can do.

There were two sides of Kaberi. The wife who loves her husband and wants him to get well again, while on the other side there is the agonizing grief of betrayal by her husband.
She struggles, fights and tries to explain herself in her own way. And finally the wife in her wins and she cannot restrain herself from doing the duties as a wife.

But, what leaves me pondering is whether if the same situation has had happened with Kaberi, what would have been Prosenjit’s action and reaction? In the film Arth directed by Mahesh Bhatt, this particular thread of thought was beautifully dealt with.

Dosar meaning Companion is a good display of black and white shades of color with reflection of complex human emotion. The feeling is accentuated with background scores and recitation of Bengali poetry. However, there are some sex-scenes that have been unnecessarily intertwined and another relationship played by Parambrata and Pallabi Chatterjee seemed superfluous.

Dosar is a film of different treatment of the same subject but it failed to come out of certain stereotypical societal inhibitions.